Sumet Mahosot, director-general of the Department of Employment (DOE), has moved five senior officials at nationality identification centres in five provinces to inactive posts, which went into effect yesterday, an informed source said.

The provinces they were based in are Samut Sakhon, Samut Prakan, Tak, Chiang Rai and Ranong.

These transfers were meant to make way for investigation into allegations that they had links with gangs that charged migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos between Bt1,400 and Bt1,600 to get them a Thai visa, which normally costs only Bt500, the source said.

The complaints claimed that the five centres had allowed outsiders to approach the workers offering to help them with their visa application in exchange for these high fees. Some complainants also claimed that the five officials allegedly benefited from these fees, hence the DOE chief decided to transfer the officials so fact-finding probes could be conducted, the source said.

In related news, permanent secretary for the Labour Ministry Jeerasak Sukhonthachat yesterday presided over the International Conference on Strengthening Social Protection for Asean Community, hosted by the Social Security Office (SSO) at Centara Grand Hotel in Bangkok's Lat Phrao area.

The conference, which had some 350 representatives from Asean countries attending, was held for the exchange of ideas ahead of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) 2015. Key matters such as social-security coverage for off-system workers and the social-security protection to trans-national workforce in Thailand and in other Asean countries were tabled.